April 13, 2020 COVID-19 Update

April 13, 2020

URFA has been in con­tact with the University/​Colleges reg­u­lar­ly to address some of the ques­tions and con­cerns that mem­bers have raised over the past sev­er­al weeks. Please find below an update, as well as some impor­tant infor­ma­tion for spe­cif­ic URFA bar­gain­ing units. 

A reminder that if you are fac­ing any issues relat­ed to the change in the work­ing envi­ron­ment due to COVID-19 to please con­tact URFA as soon as pos­si­ble so that we can work towards a res­o­lu­tion in a time­ly manner. 

LOU Draft­ing Committee 

A com­mit­tee to devel­op Let­ters of Under­stand­ing between URFA and the University/​College Admin­is­tra­tions has been formed in order to address issues that have arisen due to the changes that have been made to the work­ing envi­ron­ment as a result of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. We will update mem­bers on the sta­tus of the LOU as it develops. 

Fall Semes­ter Remote Teach­ing and Learning

In dis­cus­sion with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Regi­na, URFA has been told that no offi­cial deci­sion date has been estab­lished but June was offered as a pos­si­ble time for con­sid­er­a­tion if the fall semes­ter is also to be deliv­ered remotely.

Please see the fol­low­ing infor­ma­tion for spe­cif­ic URFA bar­gain­ing units: 

U of R APT 

Delayed Per­for­mance Reviews 

Accord­ing to Arti­cle 11.2 of the URFA/U of R APT Col­lec­tive Agree­ment, the per­for­mance review process is set to begin in May. How­ev­er, the Uni­ver­si­ty has request­ed to delay the per­for­mance review process until Sep­tem­ber. Giv­en the cir­cum­stances, URFA is in favour of this deci­sion, and is grant­i­ng the Uni­ver­si­ty approval to do so. Please note that incre­ments will still be grant­ed to mem­bers on July 1 as usu­al, despite the delayed per­for­mance review process. 

Com­put­ers and Tech­nol­o­gy at Home 

The Uni­ver­si­ty has informed us that mem­bers are wel­come to take their desk­top home, but if you do so, please let your super­vi­sor know. Oth­er equip­ment not nor­mal­ly need­ed for work, or that is a per­son­al pref­er­ence can be pur­chased through funds APEA. If you are find­ing that addi­tion­al equip­ment is need­ed due to the change in work­ing envi­ron­ment, please con­tact your super­vi­sor regard­ing the pur­chase of equip­ment. How­ev­er, please remem­ber that the Uni­ver­si­ty is oblig­at­ed to pro­vide you with the equip­ment you need to do your job. If you are hav­ing issues obtain­ing equip­ment that is nec­es­sary for you to do your job, please con­tact URFA as soon as possible . 

U of R Academic

Tenure Track Time­line Extension

Due to the dis­rup­tion to the work­ing envi­ron­ment caused by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, mem­bers who are in tenure-track posi­tions will be grant­ed an addi­tion­al one year exten­sion, if need­ed. URFA rec­om­mends that you stay on your cur­rent time­line if you are able, how­ev­er, an addi­tion­al year will be avail­able for those who need it. 

All URFA Members

As always, please do not hes­i­tate to con­tact URFA if you have any ques­tions or con­cerns regard­ing changes that have been made to your work­ing envi­ron­ment due to COVID-19, or for any oth­er issues you may be facing. 

We will con­tin­ue to update mem­bers reg­u­lar­ly. All of URFAs COVID-19 Updates can be found online at www​.urfa​.ca/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​s​/​c​o​v​id-19